Some People at NASA Are Nervous About Social Media
Mackwell: #LPSC2014 trending on Twitter this week, especially during NASA night. he gives a caution: be careful what you put out there
— Ryan N. Clegg (@Ryan_Clegg) March 19, 2014
.@lpimeetings so … you & Jim Green think its better to tweet nice happy things than to speak the truth? Not very good advice. #LPSC2014
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 19, 2014
When I look at the my dear friends in the Curiosity science team and their rules of the road they had to sign this makes them act cautious, because journalists like nothing more to skip the half sentence with the “but” and substitute it by a “!” and say: “This is the 100% prove of life on Mars, announced by the renown Dr. ….. of NASA.” You never get this back into the box. A Tweet is read by more people than any publication you ever make and it is out there for ever so act like it would be a tattoo to be placed on your forehead.
Except that the real problem here is not that NASA people are afraid they will be inaccurately quoted, but the reverse.
I don’t really know what specifically this is in reference to, but actually that seems like pretty good advice to me, especially for business/professional, civil servant, or public office related accounts. Of course a person can post whatever they want on their personal account, but it can always have consequences. Often organizations have designated people that talk to the public.